The human body has a number of internal body lumens or cavities located within, such as the differing parts of the gastro-intestinal tract, many of which have an inner lining or layer. Body lumens may include, for example, the esophagus, small and large intestines, stomach, remnant after bariatric surgery, rectum and anus. These inner linings may be susceptible to disease. In some cases, different ablation techniques have been utilized with respect to the inner lining in order to prevent the spread of disease to otherwise healthy tissue located nearby.
Internal body lumens may have different sizes with respect to each other or with respect to different patients. As a result, different sized devices may have been utilized to accommodate these different sized lumens. However, this may involve utilizing multiple devices such as multiple sizing and/or treatment devices, which may not be as efficient, cost effective, or safe as a device that can both size and treat with a single intubation.
Another problem may exist when treating a target site larger than the surface area of the treatment device. Conventional ablation approaches often involved three or more repositioning steps in order to treat a target site. Such repositioning activities may be susceptible to decreased accuracy of treatment, over or under ablation of subregions of the target site, or both. In addition, repositioning activities may be ad hoc with respect to the number of repositioning steps and the physical processes associated with the actual repositioning of the device. Such lack of consistency may further decrease accuracy of treatment, efficiency of treatment, or both.
There may thus be a need for systems, devices and methods that may overcome the above and/or other disadvantages of known systems, devices, and methods.